These three colonies were captured by the British in 1796; they were returned to the (Dutch) Batavian Republic in 1802, but were again captured by British forces a year later and were officially ceded to the United Kingdom in 1814, and consolidated into a single colony in 1831. The colony's capital was at Georgetown (known as Stabroek prior to 1812).
Guyana went on to become independent of the United Kingdom on 26 May 1966. There had been at least two unsuccessful attempts by the English to colonise the lands that would later be known as British Guiana during the 17th century, when the Dutch had established two colonies in the area: Essequibo, administered by the Dutch West India Company, and Berbice, administered by the Berbice Association. A third colony, Demerara, was established under the West India Company in the mid-18th century.
Effective British control began in 1796 during the French Revolutionary Wars, at which time the Netherlands were under French occupation and Great Britain and France were at war. A British expeditionary force was dispatched from its colony of Barbados to seize the colonies from the French-dominated Batavian Republic. The colonies surrendered without a struggle, and initially very little changed, as the British agreed to allow the long-established laws of the colonies to remain in force. In 1802 the colonies were returned to the Batavian Republic under the terms of the Treaty of Amiens, but the United Kingdom seized the colonies again less than one year later upon resumption of hostilities with France in the Napoleonic Wars in 1803.
The three colonies were officially ceded to the United Kingdom in the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814. The UK continued separate administration of the colonies until 1822, when the administration of Essequibo and Demerara was combined. In 1831, the administration Essequibo-Demerara and Berbice was combined, and the united colony became known as British Guiana.
| 1947.01 | 08.05.1947 | Overprint B.C.O.F. JAPAN 1946 on Australia 1937.01 |
| 6d | 92 | Laughing Kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae | |
| 1s | 124 | Superb Lyrebird Menura novaehollandiae |
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Philately has been considered as an "auxiliary science of history" because it is based on the general principles of other sciences, which in turn contribute to enrich it. It acquires knowledge of the sciences, of the arts, of languages and opens an immense road of social relations through all countries. This science broadens broad horizons of culture, discovers artistic temperaments and offers the interest of the new and the unknown, while performing a positive therapeutic wor.
